Wall Street jobs are leaving New York

Bengaluru, India.Wikimedia Commons
For many Goldman Sachs employees, commuting to work does not mean riding the subway down to the firm's waterfront headquarters at 200 West Street in New York City.

That's because a quarter of Goldman Sachs' staff work in lower-cost "strategic locations" around the world.

About 25% of the global investment bank's headcount is based in cheaper locations in the US and abroad, according to a presentation from CEO Lloyd Blankfein at the Credit Suisse Financial Services Forum on Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs had 36,800 staff at the end of 2015, which means 9,200 staff are based in these low-cost locations. By way of comparison, Goldman Sachs employs around 10,000 staff in New York and Jersey City.

The number of staff based in low-cost locations has increased by 3,000 since 2012, according to the presentation. Goldman's total headcount has increased 4,400 in the same period.

The majority of the "strategic location" jobs are in Bengaluru, or Bangalore, also known as the Silicon Valley of India. Goldman Sachs' headcount in the city stands at around 5,700.

Another big chunk, around 2,200, are in Salt Lake City, while there are around 730 staff in the Dallas area.

The bulk of these jobs are in tech. Goldman Sachs said Tuesday that 41% of its tech workforce now work in low-cost locations, up substantially from previous years.

"Too many employees based in high-cost centers are doing work that can sensibly be done in lower-cost centers," CEO James Gorman said at the time. "Now is the time to tackle head-on our infrastructure costs."